Rhinestone embroidering machine



INVENTOR mi?? ""f March 12, 1935. F. J. MEYERS ET AL RHINESTONE EMBROIDERING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed NOV. 17 1932 March l2, 1935. F. J, MEYERS ET Al. 1,994,250-

RHINESTONE EMBROIDERING MACHINE Filed Nov. 17, 1932 I5 Sheets-Sheet 3 v INVENTOR Mgg/@M 7795/4 ATTORN EY-5 Patented Mar. 12, 1935 RHINESTUNE EMBBOIDERIN G MACmE Frederick J. Meyers and Anton A. La. Russa, New York, N. Y.

Application November 11, 1932, sensi Nc. 643.065

y 1s claims. (ci. asi-1o) This invention relates to machines for attach- Fig. 4 is a view partly in front elevation and ing gems or stones. and more particularly artipartly in section taken on line 4 4 of Fig. 3; ficial stones such, for example, as rhinestones, to Fig. 5 is a. sectional view of the gem feeding fabric for the purpose of ornamentation. device taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 1, looking in The principal object of the invention is to the direction of the arrows; 5

Y provide a machine for attaching gems to fabric Fig. 6 iS a bttm View 0f the gem feeding deor other sheet material in which all of the necesvice; sary operations are mechanicallyrperformed so Fig. '7 is a vertical section of the gem feeding that all that is required of the operator is to device taken on the broken line 7-7 of Fig. 5;

10 feed the fabric to the machine in such a way Fig. 'Ta is a view showing a detail of the gen1 1o that the stones will be applied in accordance feeding device; with the desired design. Figs. 8, 9 and 10 are diagrammatic views It is a further object of the invention to proshowing the formation of a setting from a strip Y vide armachine which will apply the stones to of jsheet metal; A Y

the fabric one at a time and repeat the opera- Fig. 11 is a. plan view of a fragment of metal 15 tion indefinitely. strip corresponding with the positions of the It is a further object of the invention to pro# Duhch Shown in Figs. 8 and 9;

vide a. machine in which the feeding Vof pre- Fig. 12 is e. plan view of the waste strip from formed mountings for attaching the gems to the which a series of mountings have been formed;

fabric is avoided together with all of the dif- Figs. 13 and 14 are enlarged fragmentary sec- 20 culties heretofore encountered in providing for tional views showing the attaching 0f StOne t0 the automatic feeding of such mountings. the fabric;

It is also an object of the invention to provide Fig. 15 is a plan view of our improved mounta metal mounting for attaching the gems to the ing Vdrawn t0 an enlarged Scale;

- fabric which is of improved construction, which Figs. 16 and 17 are. respectively, a front view 25 holds the gems securely in place, and which is and a rear view of a fragment of fabric to extremely light in weight. which a rhinestone has been applied; and

It is a further object of the invention to provide Fig. 18 is an enlarged Sectinal View thlugh a an automatic machine for the purpose described rhinestone and mounting and the fabric adjawhich has relatively few and simple parts, and cent thereto. 30 which is low in cost of manufacture and is not Referring first to Figs. 15 to 18 of the accomliable to easily get out of order or entail expanying drawings, our improved machine and pensive maintenance or service charges. mounting are of the type in which the rhinestone It is our aim to provide a. machine which is so 1 is secured to the fabric 2 by means of the 'ra star positive in its operation and so easily manipumounting 3 which is of metal and is applied to 35 lated that it will be practical for use in rhinethe fabric from the reverse side. The three stone embroidery work and thus actually take prongs 4 of the mounting pierce the fabric and vthe place of the hand tools which are customaare bent over the inclined front surface of the rily used by dress manufacturers for attaching rhinestone aS ShOWn in Fiss. 16 and 18. 40 rhinestones. It will be understood that in decorating dress 40 Our invention will be understood from a confabrics, for example, with rhinestones applied sideration of the accompanying drawings wherein this manner, the stones are arranged in the in is illustrated the best present embodiment form 0f Some gm'e 01 design and that 01' a of our invention. It is to be understood, howsingle gown it is necessary to apply a very large 4 ever, that the disclosure in these drawings and number of stones. In order to keep the cost of 45 in the following description is illustrative only, the gown within reason. it is necessary that these and that the scope of our invention is set forth stones be quickly, neatly and uniformly mounted in the appended claims. In these drawings upon the fabric, and it is, of course, important Fig. 1 is a side elevation of our improved mathat they be rmly secured so that they will rechine; main in place during the ordinary wear of the 50 Fig. 2 is a view partly in section and partly in garment. front elevation taken on the broken line 2-2 Because of the very large number of stones of Fig. 1; used and the necessary weight of the stones, Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section taken it is of great importance that the mountings be centrally of Fig. 2 and looking toward the right; reduced in weight to the utmost practical mini- 55 mum. We accomplish this in our improved mountings, as shown in Fig. 15, by making the mounting substantially in the form of an equilateral triangle, with the sides, however, curved inwardly, as shown in Figs. 15 and 17, so as to remove all of the metal except that necessary for the required strength. To further reduce the weight of the mounting, a kerf or slot 5 is cut into one side of the base portion 6. 'I'his kerf extends to at least the center of the mounting and preferably slightly beyond.

In accordance with our invention, instead of utilizing previously formed mountings, which are diicult to feed automatically because of their odd shape and their upstanding sharp prongs, we provide for the formation of the mountings as they are needed, from a solid strip of metal ribbon by means of a. suitable punch and die. Then by a continuation of the punching stroke of the punch, the prongs of the mounting, immediately after beingl formed, are forced through the fabric. Just before the prongs pierce the fabric the rhinestone is deposited in position on the upper or front surface of the fabric immediately above the mounting, and practically :simultaneously with the contact of the prongs with the fabric a forming tool descends on top of the stone, which holds '-"the 'stone and thereby .the 'fabric against the piercing pressure. As the prongs are pushed up through the fabric, or immediately after they are pushed up' thi'ough' the fabric, the prongs are bent over the surface of the stone. The mechanism for forming the mountings is contained Within a hollow housing 7 that is cast on the outer end of a hollow base 8 which extends rearwardly from the housing 7 as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. A hollow upper arm 9 extends upwardly and forwardly from the rear end of the base 8, and supports at its forward end over the housing 7 mechanism for actuating the forming or crimping tool.

The punch which forms the mountings is shown at 10 and is mounted upon the upper end of a plunger 11 which reciprocates vertically in an aperture in frame member 12 which is cast integrally with housing 7. The cooperating die is indicated at 13 and is removably secured to the top of member 12. Surrounding the die is a bed plate 14 which prevents the cloth to which the rhinestones are to be applied from coming in Contact with the mechanism in housing 7, this fabric being laid over the top of die 13.

The metal ribbon 15 from which the mountings are punched is contained on a spool 16 which is mounted for free rotation in an extension 17 at the right side of housing 7. Ribbon .15 passes beneath the lower surface of die 13 -in a. narrow guideway which is formed in the upper surface of .a guide plate 18. After passing the punch and die the waste stock is directed downwardly into the space 19 of housing 7 and is discharged at the bottom of the housing. An arrow in Fig. 4 indicates the direction of movement. The guide plate 18 in addition to providing a guideway for the ribbon l5, serves to guide the upper end of punch 10 after it descends below the ribbon so as to keep the punch in registry with the die, it being understood that the shape of the hole through guide plate 18 is similar to the configuration of the die.

The punch plunger 11 is reciprocated by means of the horizontally pivoted driving arm 20 which is forked as indicated at 22 at its outer end for coaction with a. driving eccentric 23 mounted on shaft 24. The connection between the outer end of arm 20 and the lower end of plunger 11 is effected in such a manner as to permit the ready removal of plunger 11 and punch 10 through the bottom of housing 7. In order to accomplish this, the lower end of plunger 11 is provided with a transverse slot 25 in which is received a round knob or projection 26. Knob 26 has a shank 27 which passes through a longitudinal slot 28 in the end of arm 20, and on the outer end of this shank is a nut 29 which clamps the knob to the arm. In order to remove plunger 1l it is Vonly necessary to loosen nut 29 and slide knob 26 to the outer end of slot 28, after which the plunger 11 will drop out of its aperture in frame member 12.

'I'he mechanism for forming or crimping the prongs 4 of the gem mountings comprises a reciprocating plunger 30 which slides vertically in an aperture in the head 31 on the outer end of hollow arm 9.- A crimping tool 32 is removably mounted by means of a. thumb screw 33 in a longitudinal bore 34 extending upwardly from the lower end of plunger 30. The lower end of crimping tool 32 is provided with a conical recess 35, the walls of which are so shaped as to appropriately bend or crimp the ends of the prongs 4 against the sides of the vstone 1, as shown in Fig. 18.

The reciprocation of plunger 30 and crimping tool `32 is accomplished by means of a driving arm 36 which is pivoted in hollow arm 9 at 37 and which passes through-armY 9 to shaft 24. The lower end of arm 36 is provided with a fork 38 which coacts with a second eccentric 39 mounted on shaft 24. The two eccentrics 23 and 39 which drive arms 20 and 36, respectively, are placed at the proper angle with respect to each other so as to cause plunger 11 to rise simultaneously with the descent of plunger 30 and bring the punch 10 and crimping tool 32 into coaction approximately at the top of the die 13 as illustrated in Fig. 14. By means of this coaction, the prongs 4 of the mounting 3 are forced through the fabric 40, and then bent or crimped over against the pyramidal surface of the rhinestone.

It is important to prevent the crimping tool 32 from striking the stone too hard a blow as the parts come together, and it is also desirable to hold the crimping tool in its lowermost position in contact with the stone while the plunger 11 completes the final movement of its stroke, during which time the prongs of the mounting are forced through the fabric and bent over the stone. To obtain this action, a resilient operating connection is arranged between the end of arm 36 and plunger 30. To this end plunger 30 is provided with a transverse slot 41 (Fig. 3) which is somewhat Wider than the rounded head 42 on arm 36. 'I'he upper surface of head 42 coacts with the surface of slot 41 while the lower surface of the head coacts with a short movable plunger 43 which is positioned within the upper end of bore 34. Plunger 43 is resiliently connected with plunger 30 by means of a helical spring 44, the lower end of this spring resting upon a pin 34.

The feeding mechanism for advancing the strip 15 after completion of each operation is illustrated principally in Fig. 4. For this purpose a feeding lever 45 is pivoted at 46 and so positioned that the lower end or tail of the lever is in the path of driving arm 20. At the upper end of feeding lever 45, a feeding pawl 47 is pivoted at 48. This feeding pawl is biased upwardly into frictional engagement with the under surface of strip 15 by means of a small helical spring 49.

The feeding movement of strip 15 necessarily must take place during the short interval of time when the top of punch 10 is below the ribbon guideway 15, and accordingly feeding pawl 47 is arranged to be moved to the right by the engagement of driving arm 20 with the tail of lever 45 during the upward stroke of arm 20 and plunger l1. This movement stretches the helical actuating spring 50 which is attached at one end to the housing 'I and at the other end to lever 45. During this movement the feeding -pawl 47 merely slides along the smooth surface of strip 15. However, as soon as plunger 11 descends to the point where the upper edge of the punch 10 releases strip 15, the strip is quickly fed toward the left by the contraction of'actuating spring 50.

In a machine of this sort it is particularly important that the mechanism be of simple construction and that the formation of the mountings take place as quickly as possible. With these ends in view, punch 10 is provided with three projections 51 isee Fig. 11) which correspond in shape, when viewed from the top, to the outline of the prongs 4 of mounting 3. The punching surfaces of these three projections are tapered inwardly as indicated at 52 in Fig. 8 and provided with vertical shoulders 53. The purpose of the tapering surface 52 is to cause the outer and uppermost corners of projections 51 to first pierce the metal ribbon or strip 15 and thereby cut out the'prongs 4. Y

YAY slight continued upward movement of the punch beyond this point turns the -prongs to upright position as shown in Fig. 9. this being accomplished by the shoulders 53. At this point oi the punching operation the formation of the prongs 4 is completed as shown in Fig. 9 and in top view in Fig. 1l, leaving the substantially .triangular projections 51 of the punch 10 projecting through strip 15. The continued upward movement of punch 10 carries the punch entirely through strip 15, cutting out the material along the curved dotted lines shown in Fig. 11, and completing the formation of the mounting 3.

Fabric 40 (Fig. 13) has previously been placed by hand on the upper projecting surface of die 13. As previously described, the upward movement of punch 10 continues, carrying the mounting upwardly through the die 13. In this connection, the shoulders 53 of the die serve to ilrmly hold the mounting on the upper end of the die while the prongs of the mounting are forced through the fabric 40 and into Contact with the conical surface 35 of crimping tool 32, as shown in Fig. 14.

A very important feature of machines for attaching ornamental stones to fabric is the manner of and mechanism for feeding the stones into position to be attached to the fabric, and our improved machine has been found to be extremely reliable in this respect. Our improved mechanism for selecting and feeding the stones is illustrated in Figs. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 19, among others.

A supply of stones is contained in the lower portion of a reservoir or hopper 54 having an opening 55 through which the stones may be introduced. The stones are arranged promiscuously in the hopper in a loose pile or mass 56. By means of mechanism which is about to be described, the stones are selected, positioned right side up, and fed one at a time into a chute 57 by means of which they are carried to operating position, and deposited right side up on the upper surface of the fabric 40, as shown in 13.

Inasmuch as each stone must be deposited on the fabric immediately over the mounting 3 which is resting on the die l0, and also in the path of the crimping tool 32, chute 57 is made to reciprocate longitudinally at an angle to the vertical center line of the punch and crimping tool. While the mounting 3 is being elevated through the die 13 and crimping tool 32Vis advancing downwardly, chute 57 reaches the full-line position shown in Fig. 13, and also shown dotted in Fig. 3. where the foot or bottom 58 of the chute rests upon the fabric 40.

While momentarily in this position. a single stone which has been selected and removed from the pile 56 is discharged into the upper end of chute 57'and slides down to the foot of the chute which is provided with an opening 59 through which the stone isV deposited on the surface ofthe fabric. Then the chute immediately starts back to its uppermost position, just clearing the downwardly moving crimping tool. Immediately after the foot 58 of the chute clears the crimping tool 32, the crimping tool descends onto the stone and holds the stone in position on the fabric. While the stone is thus held, the die 10 reaches the top of its stroke, forcing the prongs of the stone mounting through the fabric and crimping the prongs over the stone.

It is important that the stone be accurately positioned over the prongs of the mounting 3 and this is accomplished by the walls of the opening 59 in foot 58 and by the concave conical surface of the crimping tool. The stone in sliding down chute. 57 attains a. considerable velocity, and it is extremely difficult to stop the stone at the desired position over the prongs of the setting. To avoid the tendency of the stone to bound out of position, the end wall 60 of foot 58 is arranged at substantially the same angle as the pyramldal sides of the stone. and in this way the stone is stopped perfectly still and placed accurately in position over the mounting 3. The angle of the chute with theY horizontal corre sponds with the slope of the sides of the stone so Vthat as the chute recedes upwardly to its upper position, there is no tendency for the wall 60 to displace the stone from its position.

The hopper 54 comprises a base member 61 forming the hopper bottom, and a removable shell or cover 62, and the base is secured to a bracket 63 on the side of hollow arm 9 of the machine housing (see Figure 4).

The mechanism for causing the reciprocation of chute 57 is illustrated more particularly in Figs. 6 and 1. The chute is attached to the base of the hopper by means of two screws 64 which engage longitudinal slots 65, and thus sldably support the chute in such a way as to permit longitudinal movement. Motion is given the chute by means of a small crank disc 66 which is rotatably mounted on the hopper base 61 and has a crank pin 6'1 which operates in a transverse slot 68 at the upper end of the chute. Crank disc 66 is rotated by means of a exible drive shaft 69, the opposite end of which is connected to a short shaft 70, at the rear of the machine housing, which carries a sprocket 71. Sprocket 71 is driven in turn by means of a chain 'I2 (Fig. 2) from a sprocket 73 mounted upon shaft 24.

The chute 57 is a straight channel open at its upper side and just deep enough to accommodate the largest sized stone which it is desired to use.

'I'he selection and delivery to chute 57 of the stones one at a time from the pile 56 within the hopper presents a considerable problem. Itis of the utmost importance that a stone be deposited in chute 57 for each operation of the stone attaching mechanism (plungers 1l and 30) for otherwise metal stone settings 3 would be fastened to the fabric without stones in them. This would require the operator to bend up the prongs of the settings so attached by means of a suitable implement and remove the settings before he could go on with his work. A loss of time would occur, and the advantages of our present machine would be largely offset. With the mechanism which we have devised, however, and which is now to be described, delays of this sort are substantially avoided.

In this mechanism the stones are discharged into the chute 57 from the hopper 54 by means of a single outlet 74 in base member 61 directly over the upper portion of the chute. The stones must be discharged through this aperture right side up and only one stone at a time, and in order to select stones from the pile 56 which are right side up and carry them singly to aperture 74, disc 75 is arranged to rotate adjacent the bottom of the hopper. This disc has a plurality of apertures 76 in its peripheral margin 76', large enough to receive only one stone and preferably of the same size as outlet 74. Disc 75 is mounted upon a short shaft 77 and slowly rotated by means of a gear 78 that meshes with a pinion 79 which is -mounted alongside of crank disc 66 and rotated simultaneously therewith by flexible shaft 69.

The face of disc 75 is arranged preferably at an angle: of 45 with the horizontal, so that the rhinestones will readily slide over its surface. As the disc rotates, the apertures 76 in passing beneath the pile of stones 56 pick up whatever stones happen to lie in upright position in their path and carry them slowly in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. towards the discharge aperture 74, the stones sliding along the upper surface of the hopper bottom 6l. The thickness of the margin 76' adjacent the aperture 76 is slightly greater than the height of the base of the stone, as may be seen in Fig. 7, so that once a stone is seated Within the aperture 76, it will not become dislodged. There is room enough in each aperture for only one stone, and if additional stones are dragged up from the pile 56 they invariably fall back into the pile before the aperture reaches the outlet 75. In the example shown in the drawings there are eight apertures 76 in the disc, and the gear ratio between gear 78 and pinion 79 is therefore 8:1 so that one aperture 76 will advance a stone to the outlet 74 for each operation of the mounting forming and applying mechanism.

In order to insure that stones shall be arranged in their upright position in the margin 76' so as to be in the path of apertures 76 as they pass beneath the pile 56, and thus insure that every aperture 76 as it leaves the pile contains a stone, the disc 75 has a raised inner portion 80 within the margin 76', and this raised inner portion is provided with a plurality of radially arranged slots or recesses 81 see Fig. 5), the floors of which are level with the surface of margin 76. In passing through the pile 56 these radial recesses each collect one or more stones (as shown in Fig. 5) and carry them out of the pile 56. These stones are retained in the recesses as the disc rotates until the recesses reach successively an angular position at the left-hand side of the pile which will permit the stones to slide radially out of the recesses into the margin 76.

A supply of stones in upright rposition is thereby continuously provided in the margin 76' at the left-hand side of the pile of stones. This supply of upright stones lles directly in the path of the aperture 76 so that as each empty aperture after leaving outlet '14 descends toward the pile, it finds a number of stones arranged in upright position ready to be caught within it. The retentive action of the apertures 76 on the side of the stones is sufficient to retain the stones in the apertures as they pass through the pile.

In order to reduce to the minimum the chance of the stones turning upside down as they pass through the outlet 74 into chute 57 the chute slides in a recess in the hopper bottom 61 so as to bring the top of the chute close to the upper surface of the hopper bottom. Also, the hopper bottom is provided with a sloping approach 82 (see Fig. 7a) adjacent outlet 74 so that at the instant the stones are released through outlet 74 the distance they have to fall to strike the bottom of chute 57 is substantially no greater than the height of the walls of the chute itself.

'Ihe machine is driven by means of a small electric motor 83, the shaft of which is connected by means of a flexible coupling 84 to a vertical shaft 85. On shaft 85 is a worm 86 which drives a worm gear 87 that rotates loosely on shaft 24. Worm gear 87 rotates continuously so long as motor 83 is energized, and in order to cause the machine to operate, a clutch mechanism of usual construction is provided. This clutch mechanism includes a projection 88 upon the inner side of gear 87 which engages a complementary clutch member 89 which is keyed to shaft 24 in such manner as to permit it to be moved longitudinally of its shaft so as to retract it from the path of projection 88.

Clutch member 89 is biased towards the projection 88by means of a helical spring 90, and in order to move clutch member 89 out of engagement with projection 88, member 89 is provided with a cam surface 91 with which a clutch actuating pin 92 coacts. When pin 92 -is raised from the position shown in Fig. 2, it releases clutch member 89 which is immediately projected into the path of projection 88 by means of the spring 90, and shaft 24 is thereby driven by gear 87. Shaft 24 will continue to rotate so long as pin 92 is raised. Whenever pin 92 is lowered into the path of cam surface 91, however, member 89 will be retracted, causing the disengagement of the clutch, and the rotation of shaft 24 will cease.

Pin 92 is preferably under the control of a foot lever (not shown) which is connected to pin 92 by means of a link 93 and a lever 94, shown in Fig. l. Therefore, if the operator wishes to apply a'single stone to a piece of fabric he places the fabric over the top of die 13 and depresses the foot control lever, instantly releasing the lever when the machine starts. Then, upon the completion of a single revolution of shaft 24 which causes the formation of the stone mo'unting and its application to the fabric, as previously described, the clutch mechanism will be automatically disengaged.

If, however, the operator desires to allow the machine to run continuously, which is the usual practice, he merely keeps the foot control lever depressed, and the actuation of the stone-applying mechanism takes place repeatedly, and hence applies the stones to the fabric as fast as the machine will operate. the operator shifting the fabric between each application of a stone and following the design or pattern, which,

for convenience, is usually outlined on the fabric. The approved machine of our invention has proved to be very effective in placing stones upon 1 dress materials, as it is reliable in operation and of such simple construction that it is not liable to readily get out of order. Moreover, it will operate to' satisfactorily apply stones of a wide variety of sizes. When a change in size of stone is desired for the particular work in hand, it is only necessary to remove plunger l1 and die 13, and replace these by a punch and die suitable to produce a setting of the desired size. lIhe crimping tool 32 may also be replaced with a similar tool of different size. This -crimping tool is of extremely simple construction and the punch and die are notl in the least complicated to make so that their cost is not high, and a complete set of punches and dies to take care of the entire range of sizes of stones is supplied with each machine.

We claim: Y

1. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, the combination of a punch and die for successively forming stone mountings from sheet metal, means operated in timed relation with said punch and die for forcing the prongs of said mountings through a sheet of material while said mounting is within said die, mechanically actuated means for automatically and successively feeding stones between said prongs, and means operated in timed relation to said stone-feeding means for thereafter crimpingsaid prongs over said stone.

2. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones vto sheet material, the combination of a die, a punch co-acting with said die to form a stone mounting and push the same through the die to the opposite surface thereof, and a vcrimping tool movable to and from said opposite surface of the die and coacting with said punch and die to force the prongs of said setting through a sheet of material and crimp them over the surface of a stone.

3. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, the combination of a support for said sheet material, a movable support for a stone mounting arranged to reciprocate with respect to said material support, a crimping tool also arranged to reciprocate with respect to said material support, mechanically actuated means for automatically and successively depositing stones one at a time upon said material `above a mounting resting upon said mounting support, and means for bringing said mounting support and said crimping tool simultaneously into coaction with said material support to force the prongs of the stone mounting through the material and crimp them over the surface of the stone.

4. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, the combination of a die, a punch arranged to reciprocate vertically through said die and therewith form a stone mounting carrying the same upon the punch to the upper surface of the die, a crimping'tool mounted for vertical reciprocation over said die, and means to cause the simultaneous reciprocation of s aid punch and crimping tool into coaction with said die to form a stone setting and apply the same to said sheet material.

5. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, a depositing device for depositing stones in upright position on said material between the stone-attaching devices thereof, comprising a chute having a positioning foot at its lower end, means for moving said foot into and out of depositing position between said devices, and means for feeding stones one at a time to said chute while the foot thereof is in said depositing position.

6. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, a depositing device for depositing stones in upright position on said material between the stone-attaching devices thereof, comprising a chute having a positioning foot at its lower end, means for moving said foot into and out of depositing position between said devices, means for feeding stones one at a time to said chute while the foot thereof is in said depositing position, the foot of said chute having a positioning opening in the bottom thereof and having an end wall disposed substantially at the same angle as the side of the stones so as to stop a descending stone at the end of its descent without rebounding.

7. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, a die, a punch coacting therewith for forming stone mountings, said punch having a plurality of projections at its end for cutting and bending the prongs of the mounting prior to the punching of the mounting, said projections having shoulders for retaining the mounting on the end of the punch, and means coacting with said punch for applying said mounting to a sheet of material and crimping the prongs over a stone.

8. A selecting and feeding mechanism for ornamental stones or similar articles comprising a hopper having an Vinclined bottom and adapted to receive and hold therein a mass of stones, Aan outlet in the upper portion of said inclined bottom above said pile of stones for discharging the stones from the hopper, a carrier arranged to move over said bottom through said pile of stones and carry the stones one at a time to said discharge outlet, a reciprocating chute for receiving and conveying the stones from said outlet, and means for reciprocating said chute in timed relation to thedischarge of stones from said outlet.

9. In a selecting and feeding device forA ornamental stones or similar articles, a hopper having an inclined bottom adapted' to receive on its lower portion a mass of stones, a discharge outlet in the upper portion of said bottom, and a stone carrier moving over the surface of said lnclined bottom through said mass of stones to carry said stones to said discharge outlet, said carrier being provided with selecting means for selecting from said mass only stones which are in upright position, and means within said hopper for arranging stones from said mass in upright positionand delivering them to said selecting means.

10. In a selecting and feeding device for or.

namental stones or similar articles, a hopper having an inclined bottom adapted to receive on its lower portion a mass of stones, a discharge outlet in the upper portion of said bottom, a stone carrier moving over the surface of said inclined bottom through said mass of stones to carry said stones one at a time to said discharge outlet, said carrier being provided with selecting means for selecting from said mass only stones which are in upright position, and means within said hopper for arranging in the path of said selecting means stones from said mass which are in upright position.

1l. In a device for selecting and feeding ornamental stones or similar articles including a hopper having an inclined bottom for receiving a mass of stones on the lower portion thereof the Y combination of a discharge outlet in said bottom above said mass 'of stones, a rotary disc having a thin marginal portion arranged to rotate adjacent the bottom ot the hopper, said disc being provided in its marginal portion with an aperture adapted to receive one stone in upright position as said aperture passes through said mass and by which said stone is carried to said discharge outlet, said disc having an inner portion of greater thickness than said marginal portion, and radial recesses arranged within said inner portion for collecting stones from said mass during the rotation of said disc and discharging them in upright position on the said marginal portion so as to provide a supply of stones in upright position in the path of said aperture.

12. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, the combination of a die, a punch coacting with said die to form a stone mounting and push the same through the die to the opposite side thereof, and a tool mounted for reciprocation with respect to the opposite side of said die and coacting with said punch to torce the prongs o! said mounting through a sheet o! material.

13. In a machine for attaching ornamental stones to sheet material, the combination of .a die, a punch coacting with said die to form a stone mounting and push the same through the die, means actuated in timed reiation with said punch for forcing the prongs of said mounting through a sheet of material while said mounting remains in engagement with said punch, mechanically actuated means for feeding a stone into attaching position with respect to said mounting, and means for thereafter crimping said prongs over said stone.

FREDERICK J. MEYERS. ANTON A. LA RUSSA. 

